


Pokemon: Hurricane

by aparticularbandit



Series: Our Courage Will Pull Us Through [1]
Category: Jane the Virgin (TV)
Genre: F/F, Gen, Pokemon AU, anyway, but i think i might work on the first two parts like not, but that's not the main focus for this fic, but they both come before the third part, hm, i plan on that being the focus of the third part, if that makes any sense, like you don't have to read the first part first and the second part second, of which this is, so just a heads up on that, the first - Freeform, there are definitely planned to be moments of roisa, they're kind of companion pieces, this focuses on pre-series events, this is more focused on luisa's relationship with emilio than it is roisa
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-23 08:56:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16615880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aparticularbandit/pseuds/aparticularbandit
Summary: In which we consider how Luisa's life would have been different if she lived in a world where Pokemon existed.





	Pokemon: Hurricane

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter deals with Mia, so heads up that if her hallucinations or things involving her are triggering for you, just, like, keep that in mind going forward with this chapter.

 

Mia watched as Luisa ruffled through her presents, legs tucked up underneath her, curled against her husband’s strong torso.  Outside their window, a light snow fell, covering the ground with a thin layer of white frost.  She hoped that in the morning there would be enough for snowballs, snowmen, and snow angels, for deep footprints in the snow that would just be filled in with another snow fall by the next morning.  They had Emilio’s hotel business to thank for this trip; it appeared to be doing well, so well, in fact, that they were able to escape for the holiday before returning for New Year festivities.  Tomorrow would be their daughter’s first real snow adventure, but right now, on Christmas Eve, they could begin their first real family traditions.

“Just one, dear,” Emilio said as their three year old daughter sorted through her presents, placing them in different piles, and shaking one of the oddly shaped ones.

Mia shifted closer to her husband, resting her head on his shoulder.  She turned, her gaze moving from Luisa to her Pangoro, Helio, who stood like a guard near one of the windows, the leaf in his mouth switching from one edge to the other, dark eyes keeping careful watch out for any Froslass or other potential ghosts outside.  He seemed as focused as always, and she turned back to continue watching her daughter.  Emilio’s Primarina yawned where she sat curled up by the fire, head resting on her front paws and closing her eyes, ears twitching with each sound Luisa made, tail wrapped around her.

Finally, Luisa sat in her pile of sorted presents, surrounded by them, and looked up at her parents with big, round eyes.  “I don’ know which one.”  Her hazel eyes glanced back to her presents, moving from one brightly colored package to another, her lower lip trembling.

“Would you like some help, my little lillipup?”  Mia scooted away from her husband, sitting on the edge of her seat, and leaned forward so that her dark eyes could meet her daughter’s warmer ones.

Luisa just nodded, her eyes growing watery.

“Well, I _was_ planning on waiting until tomorrow to give you this, but I think-“  And Mia stood, brushing her hands on her pants.  At her movement, Helio’s head turned to face her, but she just waved him off.  She crept away into their vacation house’s single bedroom, pulling a small, oval-shaped present out from under the bed, and returned, cradling it gently in her arms.

Luisa’s face lit up when she saw the gift her mother carried, and her small arms reached for it, fingers outstretched.

“Now, if I give this to you, you _have_ to open it.  No shaking.”

“No shake,” Luisa repeated, solemn, and as Mia carefully placed the orb in her hands, Luisa pulled it toward her.  True to her word, she didn’t shake it, but she _did_ press it up against her ear, listening.  _Nothing._   Then she put it on the floor between her legs and ripped the paper away to reveal—

“What is it?” Luisa asked, brows furrowed in confusion as she glanced from the black and brown speckled object in front of her to her mother’s face.

“An egg.”

Mia was careful not to look at Emilio’s face as she said this, leaning forward on the couch with her head in her hands, but she could feel the weight of his stare burning her back.

Still, it was _worth_ her daughter’s reaction.  Luisa’s eyes widened in excitement as the speckled orb started to crack from the heat of the fireplace nearby.  She couldn’t move her gaze away from what was going on in front of her, mouth opened in a wide little _oh_.  A little furry hand poked through the cracks in the shell, followed by another, and then a black and white head popped out.  All at once, the little panda-like creature burst out of the egg shell, black eyes glancing up at Luisa.

“Pan?”

There wasn’t even the space of a moment before Luisa’s arms wrapped tight around the furry little creature in front of her.  She held it close to her, squeezing it, so overwhelmed that she couldn’t even speak.

“What would you like to name her?”

“ _Me?_ ”  Luisa looked up, staring at her mother with wonder.  The Pancham in her arms took the slight loosening of her grip as an opportunity to take gasping, wheezing breaths.

“Yes, you,” Mia said with a smile.  “She is _yours_ , after all.”

Mia didn’t mention how hard it had been to find a breeder who was willing to let Helio mate with one of their Pangoros or how much she’d had to pay for the opportunity.  If Emilio could afford to give them this vacation, then _she_ could afford to give their daughter this future protection.  She was just glad it had all worked out.

Luisa glanced up to Helio, who had turned from the window to watch her expectantly.  She didn’t make the connection that far, too young to do so.  Instead, she only saw that she had a baby panda like her mom’s _giant_ panda, who had, on occasion, given her piggy-back rides, where all she could do was giggle and laugh.

“ _Luna_.”

Luisa spoke the word with firm finality – or at least as much as a three year old could muster – and held her Pancham away from her, small hands on its newly hatched shoulders.  “You’re Luna.”

“Pancha.”

The little bear’s voice was so solemn, Luisa couldn’t help but giggle, pulling the bear back towards her.  She grinned up at her parents.  “Thank you, Mama!  Thank you, Papa!”

Mia grinned as she leaned back against her husband once more, and Emilio nodded, tipping the edge of his wine glass in Luisa’s direction, then pressed a kiss to the crown of his wife’s head.  “I hope we could afford that,” he whispered so soft that their daughter, preoccupied with her new Pokemon, couldn’t hear him.

“We could.  Don’t worry about it.”

“I _do_ worry.  We discussed this.  She’s too young—“

“—and I disagree,” Mia snapped before giving Emilio a peck on his cheek.  “Don’t worry.  I’ll make sure—“

“You _will_ make sure.”  Emilio took another sip of his wine.  “I don’t want one of those Pokemon Protection Agencies breathing down our necks.  It could run the hotel under.”

“That’s all you think about.  Your _hotel_.”

“I cannot provide for the two of you without—“

“Daddy?”

Luisa stepped forward, dragging Luna with her by one arm.  Her tiny gaze moved from Emilio to Mia then back again, her eyes wide.  “Is something bad?”

“No, my darling.  Nothing is bad.”  Emilio shot his wife a look before placing his wine glass on the side table.  Then he stood, scooped his young daughter up in his strong arms, and blew on her stomach until she shrieked with laughter, hands waving wildly in the air.  She continued to giggle as he carried her back to the bedroom.

Mia slowly untangled herself from her seat, unwrapping her legs from beneath her.  Then she took hold of Luna, picking her up, and the newborn Pancham looked up at her with big black eyes.

“Cham pan am?”

“Fun first meeting, huh?”  Mia cradled the Pancham in her arms and walked with her over to Helio, who gave the two of them a rough stare.  “Say hello to your father, Luna.”

“Pancham.”

Helio reached over and brushed one paw through the cowlick of white fur atop Luna’s head.  “Pangoro.”

The moment was broken only by Luisa’s shouting for her from the bedroom.  “Mama!  Mama!”

Mia turned as she heard her daughter’s cries, and she stood on her tiptoes, giving Helio a tiny kiss on the tip of his nose, before taking Luna back to the bedroom, where Emilio had already tucked their daughter into bed.  She placed Luna next to her daughter, wrapping her up under the comforter, and Luisa immediately snuggled up to the little bear, curling her head on her shoulder.  Then Mia bent down and pressed a gentle kiss to her daughter’s forehead.

“Good night, my little lilipup.  Sleep tight.”

“Don’t let the bedbugs bite,” Emilio continued with his deep, booming voice.  He reached down and ruffled Luisa’s hair, and she giggled.

“Now go to sleep,” Mia said, curling up on the bed next to her daughter, “so Santa can come and leave you _more_ presents.”  She gave Emilio a questioning look, and he acknowledged her with a sly wink.

“No need Santa.”  Luisa pouted, curling up closer to her Pancham, who had already conked out.  “Already have Luna.”

“Oooooh, so _sure_ are you?”  But Mia couldn’t keep the laughter from her own voice.  She snuggled up closer to her daughter, smothering her face with kisses.

“Stop it, stop it!”  Luisa patted at her mother’s face with one tiny hand, eyes shut tight.  But this didn’t do her any good; instead, Mia reached under the sheets and began tickling her.  Luisa curled away from Luna, trying to become a tight little ball, but Mia still found the sides of her stomach.

Of course, Emilio had to take up the stern parent role.  “You _both_ need to sleep,” he said, shutting off the overhead light.  Mia’s fingers pulled away as she turned to watch him leave the room, shutting the door soundly behind him.

“Yes, Daddy.”  Luisa wheezed out in-between gasping breaths, even though her hazel eyes didn’t move from her mother.  “You’ll stay with me?”

“Of course, my dear.  As long as I have breath in my lungs.”  Mia tucked an errant strand of Luisa’s dark brown hair behind one ear and pressed another kiss to her forehead.  Luisa held Luna to her like a plush doll but moved to cuddle against her mother, shutting her eyes.  It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep under Mia’s watchful gaze, but even still, Mia stayed where she was.  She didn’t want the argument that could come if she went back into the other room.  It wasn’t very _mature_ of her, but it was Christmas Eve.  She wasn’t _supposed_ to be mature.

So instead, Emilio found them later, curled up, fast asleep, and sighed at the sight, shaking his head.

* * *

 

Her parents were fighting again.

Luisa could still hear them even three doors down: her father’s deep voice booming so loud the walls reverberated with it followed by echoes of her mother’s lighter tones, growing higher in pitch into what feels like a painful shriek.  As they continued, one of her arms wrapped around her Pancham, Luna, who she’d had for longer than she could remember, while the other hand covered her ear.  She pressed her head into her pillow, trying to ignore the shouting and fall asleep.

But no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t, and as the muffled shouting continued, she crept out from under her faded rose comforter and pale pink sheets and through her big white door, bare feet padding down the carpeted hall until she could poke her head around the edge of one wall into the living room.

It wasn’t cold outside, it never was in Miami, not really, but there was still a fire sparkling in the fireplace.  Luisa’s eyes were drawn to it, to the purple and ebony ghosting of something in-between its flames.  Her brow furrowed as she tried to make out an image in what she saw.

“ _I’m not crazy!_ ” her mother shrieked, and Luisa turned just in time to see her father move forward with one hand outstretched, as though—

Whatever it was Emilio had been planning to do was stopped as soon as it began.  With a loud growl, Helio leapt forward, pushing her mother back and away from her father.  The great bear snatched her father’s shoulder, scratching through the fabric of his suit, carving into his skin, and thrust him away into the hard wall.  But as soon as Helio harmed her father, Emilio’s Primarina leapt from its pillow by the fire and attacked the bear.

Luisa’s eyes grew wide, and in the commotion, her mother ran through the front door.  The twinkling from the fireplace followed her, and unbeknownst to either of her parents, Luisa followed it, dragging Luna behind her.

* * *

 

Mia _knew_ that ghost Pokemon existed.

Not only that, but she knew that they were especially prevalent in the dark, taking advantage of the shadows to better hide themselves as opposed to making themselves translucent in the light.  But most ghosts didn’t choose to show themselves even when it was dark, whether outside or in an abandoned house; they far preferred to hide while they tormented whatever poor prey they found.  And even worse, they were attracted to people like her, people who already struggled to keep a steady grip on reality.

She knew all of this.  It’s why she tried to always have Helio with her, a large dark-type Pokemon to sense the ghosts and hold them at bay so that her struggles were fully her own and not amplified by those tricksters, why she’d made sure that her daughter’s first Pokemon was one who could evolve into that type to protect her when she and Helio were no longer around.  This wasn’t something she’d been able to explain to her husband, although it’s not for lack of trying.

But _none_ of this was in the forefront of her mind as she ran, barefoot, from the house, from the man she’d married who had moved to harm her.  She knew she’d been seeing things.  She _knew_.  But that didn’t mean her worries were invalid.  That didn’t mean he _wasn’t_ putting their little family at risk.  He _was_.  He just couldn’t see it.  And no matter how much she tried to explain it to him, it always got swept under the rug, under this idea that she couldn’t think _straight_ about these sorts of things.

What she wanted to tell him was that all of this stress was making her head _ache_ , that as much as the visions she sees weren’t _real_ , they were far preferable to the reality he wanted them to live in.  Mia worked _hard_ to be where and what she was, to have this little family of hers without succumbing to crime, and here her husband wanted to be involved with an _art trafficking ring_ just to gain _more_ money.

Maybe he knew what he was talking about.  Maybe it would be a safe decision.

_But they didn’t need the money._

And whatever their argument, _hitting her_ wasn’t the answer.

Mia’s thin lips pressed tighter together as she ran.  She didn’t know _where_ she was running, only _was_ running, and somewhere in the area around their house she got…not _lost_ but unaware of her surroundings.  They didn’t live at the little hotel Emilio owned.  It’s small, but it’s _good_ , and sometimes he was able to let it grow on its own and come home to his family.  But even now, the obsession built in his head.

And she was just so tired of all of it.

The dirt beneath her feet transitioned into gravel, and from there she could see what appeared to be an old road.  Something in her told her to go right, towards the lamplight, instead of left, further into the darkness, and since this seemed sound to her, she listened to it.  A few scattered Mothim fluttered about the light, so close their golden wings looked almost white.  The moths around them kept getting closer to the light, as though about to get zapped, but the Mothim swept in-between them and the bulb before they could get too close.  But every now and again, one would slip through, get zapped, and then fall to the ground.

Mia stood, barefoot, in her thin white gown beneath the lamplight, just watching them, chest heaving as she let herself breathe.  Just _breathe_.  Her chest burned from running so far and for so long.  She wasn’t even sure where she was, but if she kept on walking down the street, she’d find something.  Probably.  _Maybe._

As she continued down the road, some of her surroundings started to seem a little bit more familiar, and when she reached the bridge, she was _certain_ she both knew where she was and how to get back to her house, if she wanted to get back.

No.  She wanted to go back.  That wasn’t even a question.  She didn’t want to leave Luisa alone while Emilio was like that, and she couldn’t just leave Helio there.  Even if she already had.  No, she _had_ to go back.

And she would.

Eventually.

* * *

 

Luisa’s little legs ran after her mother as much as she could, as _fast_ as she could.  She stumbled a few times, enough that the knees in her pink pajama pants were wet and muddy where they weren’t ripped.  Her knees hurt, and a trickle of blood bloomed beneath the tatters of her pants, not that she has noticed it.  Only that it _hurt_.  Tears welled in her eyes, making the path harder to see, and eventually it felt like she was just running aimlessly.  Her mother was far, far ahead of her, and getting farther away until, finally, she couldn’t even see her anymore.

“Cham, pancham!”

Luna struggled to keep up with her until Luisa let go of her arm.  Then she moved much better, much farther, _much faster_ , able to bounce from one spot to the other.  She stopped ahead of Luisa, pointing forward.  “Cham!  Cham pan pancham!”

“I’m not that fast!” Luisa sobbed out, trying not to stop, but unable to see well enough to go much further.  She pounded tiny fists against her legs, furious, frustrated.

And Luna sped back on her furry little feet, picked Luisa up, placed her on her back, and started running forward again.  Within a few moments, Luisa could see her mother’s form in front of her again, and she breathed a sigh of relief.  She rubbed her hands against her watery eyes, then wrapped her arms around Luna’s neck and buried her chin in the white cowlick on the top of her head.

Her mother stopped like a Froslass under the lamplight.  Black hair blowing in the wind, white gown almost transparent.  With her stopped like she was, they could get closer.  Not close enough to make out anything in specific, but Luisa _knew_ that was her mama.  Who else could it be?  But the gravel was _slippery_ beneath Luna’s paws, and she, too, stumbled, throwing Luisa off of her back.  Luisa skidded across the gravel, scratching up her arms, a few pebbles getting stuck in her already bloody knee.  She _winced_ but struggled to get up and get moving again.  Her mama was _right there_!  If she could just move faster, further!

But now the gravel was cutting into her bare feet.  It hurt to _walk_.  How was her mama able to get this far?

And against her most fervent desires, her mama began moving again.

Luisa grit her teeth together, lips curled between them, and she wiped at her eyes with the back of her hands again.  She had to keep moving.  Had to!  Whatever her daddy was doing, she wanted her mama!  She didn’t want her to leave!  Hadn’t she promised to stay with her?  And here she was, running away!

Well, Luisa would run after her!  And she would catch up to her!  She would!

….

She would try!

And almost as soon as she thought that, Luna was behind her again, scooping her up and placing her on her back.  It had taken a few minutes to get used to the gravel, the way her little paws skid across the surface, but she’d learned and could now continue racing ahead – albeit much more carefully.  Luisa clung to her, arms wrapped around her little neck, holding on tight.

So it was that _Luisa_ saw it first.

From her perch back on Luna’s back, she saw it, that same purple and ebony sparkling from the fireplace, hovering near her mother and winding about her head.  She squinted, like she’d seen people do to try and see things better, and although in most cases this didn’t work out very well, in this particular case, it did.  A face formed in the sparkles – purple, with bright golden eyes and a dark cheshire grin.

“Luna, what is that?” she asked.

“Pan?”

Luisa tightened her leg hold around her Pancham’s waist, gripping her with one arm, so that she could point with her other arm outstretched.  “ _That._ ”

“Chancha.”

Luisa couldn’t quite understand what Luna was saying, but a feeling of intense dread worked up her spine.  She’d only heard the Pancham utter the word once before, when she’d been with Helio, who had begun showing them ghost type Pokemon as they ran across them.  Mostly he pointed them out as they drove past graveyards, hospitals, or abandoned hotels, and while she couldn’t always make out what their real names were, she could sometimes remember the sounds.  This one she hadn’t seen, but the younger, lesser forms she’d seen.

Her mind struggled, futilely, to make that connection.

* * *

 

“Mama!”

Mia paused again in her much slower wanderings and almost turned her head to look behind her.  But she knew better than to try; Luisa couldn’t possibly have followed her all the way out here, so anything she was hearing had to be a hallucination.  Probably some ghost Pokemon trying to lure her back towards the darkness.  _No, thank you._   She was fine where she was.

The gravel beneath her feet transitioned again, this time to much smoother concrete, as she approached a bridge.  _The_ bridge.  There were many bridges that connected their little suburb to the busier city where Emilio’s hotel sat, but this was the one they used most regularly, spreading over one of the thicker, more rapid rivers that headed down to the bay.  For now, it was a good place to stop and try to think, try to get her head on straight, before she headed back.

And she _was_ heading back.  She was.  Eventually.  _She was._   But she wanted to try and think through some decisions first.  How to deal with Emilio.  How to best protect Luisa.  And having this spot here, now, even while it was dark, was nice.  She leaned against one side of the bridge as she thought and glanced down into the raging waters.

It wasn’t hurricane season, but there’d been torrential rains for the past few days.  In fact, that the skies were clear now was a real blessing, in her opinion; there wasn’t a cloud around, allowing what stars could be seen through the haze of city lights to shine brightly.  Beneath the bridge, the river was swollen, much higher than normal but not yet enough to break its banks, like it might with a hurricane.  Even the wind seemed cool, calm, caressing her skin like an eager lover.  For once, despite imagining her daughter’s voice, she felt stable, at peace.

But then the call came again – _“Mama!”_ – and the sound of furry feet on gravel, and when Mia _finally_ turned to see the figments of her daughter and the accompanying Pancham, it was through a purple-tinted cloud, one she’d tried to train herself to notice.

_Gastly_ , she thought, _or maybe Haunter._

Mia shut her eyes and shook her head, trying to clear her mind of what she was certain wasn’t real.

“Mama!”  The false Luisa tugged on the edge of her white nightgown, leaving muddy handprints on the thin fabric, ones Mia was sure would disappear when the ghost was gone.  “Mama, we have to go home!”

Mia’s teeth gritted together, jaw clenching.  “No,” she said, voice stern.  “I’m staying right here.”

“But Mama—“

“Don’t _Mama_ me.  I’m not your mama.”  Her eyes narrowed.  “I’m just a _scheme_ to you.  What do you want, for me to jump off the bridge?”

There was a hissing, echoing sort of laughter as her hallucination’s eyes widened, mouth open and gaping.  Of course.  No ghost likes being called out for its tricks.

And then, on an impulse, Mia decided to do something she’d long wanted to do with her hallucinations, even the ones that hadn’t felt _bad_ at the time, if she’d been able to tell they weren’t real.  She picked up the image that wasn’t her daughter, prying its fake hands from where it clung to the edge of her nightgown, and with one smooth motion, she hefted it over the bridge.

Whatever it was dropped like a stone and plopped into the water, the waves cutting off its loud screaming.  The fake Pancham, in a move uncharacteristic for a hallucination, dove in after the other one.  Honestly, Mia had expected the fake Pancham to just disappear, but it seemed whatever ghost she’d attracted was very insistent on getting her to jump as well.  _Too bad._   She could see through its lies easily enough.  Unfortunate that it hadn’t given up entirely, but—

Suddenly, a wide beam of light shot down the gravel road.  It flashed across Mia’s skin, and she winced at the sudden brightness, flinched as the car stopped abruptly.  The asshole driver didn’t even think to turn the lights off as he got out of the car, slamming the door behind him.

“ _Mia._ ”

Emilio stormed forward, grabbing his wife’s wrists.  His suit jacket and white button-up shirt were gone, bandages taped around his right shoulder and torso.  “Where’s Luisa?”

Mia’d never heard him so angry or so loud, even throughout the many arguments they’d had over the years.  She wasn’t even sure he was _real_ right now, not with the ghost haze that had been hanging around.  But as she looked, Mia couldn’t see any purple haze the same way she had around the fake Luisa and accompanying Pancham.  Not a ghost image then.  Maybe a hallucination of her own mind’s design, but still, it wasn’t likely.  He rarely figured into those, and when he _did_ , it was the sweet Emilio she had known before they were married, before he’d opened the hotel.

“I…I haven’t seen her.”  Mia hesitated, not willing to admit it, but she continued anyway.  “I thought I might’ve seen something _like_ her, but it had the haze of a ghost around it, so I—“

“You what?”

“I threw it over the bridge.”  Mia shook her head, crossing her arms, hands clenching on her white nightgown.  “Why?  I thought she was with _you_.”

“She ran after _you_.”  Emilio pulled a Pokeball out of his back pocket and released his Primarina.  “Look for her,” he commanded, “Make sure she’s _alive_.”

And she dove beneath the waves.

“That Luisa wasn’t _real_ , Emilio,” Mia repeated, insistent.  “She must have gotten lost on the way here.  There’s no way she could have kept up.  We need to go—“

“If she got lost, what are these?”  Emilio knelt down, wincing at the pain in his shoulder, and pulled up the edge of Mia’s nightgown.  “What are these handprints?”

“The ghost, they must be the—“

But her heart fell into her chest, and she ran against the bridge railing, searching, searching for a glimpse of something beneath the waves.  But she could only see Emilio’s Primarina, moving further and further down the river, before Emilio pulled her back.  Then her dark, frantic eyes found his, and she crumpled, sobbing against his chest.

“It’s okay,” Emilio whispered, his hand brushing through her dark, tangled hair.

“ _I threw our daughter into the river because I thought she was a ghost; how is it okay?_ ”  Mia pounded her fists against her husband’s chest, tiny little things, the same way her daughter would pound against her legs, and her breath stuck in her throat.  “How could I not see that she was real?”

Emilio pressed a gentle kiss to the crown of his wife’s head.  “The same way you can’t see when they aren’t.”

This wasn’t the time for this argument.  She hated that this was the moment he would use that against her, that he would take the gaping hole in her chest and widen it enough to stick his hand through, as though to pull out her heart.  But she couldn’t refute him, as much as she wanted to.  Her head turned away from him at his Primarina’s cry.

“She’s found her,” she breathed out, voice barely above a whisper.  “That’s what that means, right?  She’s found her?”  Even quiet, her voice was frantic, eyes unmoving from the form of the Pokemon now swimming upstream back towards them.  She could almost make out two figures on its back, shadowy forms of what she hoped where her daughter.  _And Luna_ – how could she have forgotten Luna?

Emilio kept his hand on his wife’s back, calm, comforting.  When he didn’t say anything, Mia took that as confirmation.  They’d been found.  They were _alive_ , even if she couldn’t see them breathing, they _had_ to be alive.  She had to believe that.

* * *

 

Luisa awoke sopping wet in a hospital bed.  It took her a few minutes before she realized where she was or remembered what had happened, and then she snapped up in the plastic bed, heart monitor going haywire, eyes frantic and searching, searching.  “Where’s Luna?  Where’s—“

Then her hazel eyes found her mother’s dark ones and she _yelled_ , burying herself between the itchy hospital bedsheets.  When a hand she was certain belonged to her mother touched her shoulder, she just burrowed deeper, trying to get away from her, to hide, but the form curled up in the bed next to her, held her close against her, shivering as it whispered, over and over again, “I’m sorry, I’m _so_ sorry, Luisa, Mama’s so, _so_ sorry, and she’ll never do it again.  Never again, I didn’t mean it, I’m sorry.”

And Luisa believed her.  She didn’t have the heart to do anything else.  But she still felt safer curled up under the blankets, even as she pulled nearer to her mother, wrapping her tiny little arms around her.

* * *

 

A few months later, Mia was gone, and Helio with her.

She left a letter by way of explanation, but Luisa wasn’t allowed to read it.  She was too young, perhaps, and it was put away until she was old enough to be able to understand what her mother had written.  They didn’t even know where Helio went, although it was suspected he’d left to find the Gengar who had caused them so much trouble.  But no one saw him, so no one knew.

Luisa stayed holed up in her room, curled up in bed with Luna, burying her face, her fear, and her tears into the bear’s fur.  There were no knocks on her door, no attempts to interfere with her mourning or to comfort her.  She might as well have forgotten the bridge incident, refusing to think of it, because every time she did, she was glad her mother was gone and she hated herself for thinking it and clung even tighter to Luna.

She was six years old, and that was not a good age to try and make sense of complicated grief.  It was far easier not to think of it and to stay with her Pokemon.

They moved to the hotel shortly after.  No one wanted to see that bridge anymore.


End file.
